Is there a particular recipe for military success? How has America won its wars in the past, and how can it continue winning in the future? Also the author of the 2012 John Lyman Book Award winner Allied Master Strategists, David Rigby explores this question through specific examples in U.S. history, both on and off the battlefield, including highly effective strategies like Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the Berlin Airlift. Rigby defines five points that have consistently led to American victory—and how ignoring these points led to failure in Vietnam and protracted campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"[This] hard-hitting book neatly encapsulates why the United States has been so successful at warfare over the past 250 years, and sets down lessons that should be required reading in the military academies and the White House."—Andrew Roberts